If you are interested in starting a career in a warehouse setting, an Amazon picker position may be the ideal fit for you.
This entry-level job comes with minimum requirements and pays a decent starting wage to those of us with really limited work experience.
In our article here, we’re going to give you an accurate description of the Amazon picker role with an emphasis on the job’s main responsibilities, starting salary, and work hours.
Order pickers feature an elevating platform that brings the operator to the level of the stock, similar to a cherry picker. The operator essentially is lifted or lowered to the stock position with the load in order to get access to the product. The lift platform doubles as.
Amazon Picker Job Description & Duties:
- This harvester clears an 18' wide path for faster clean-up. The basket, ejector fingers, and brackets have all been re-engineered for a better Bag-A-Nut, and a better sweet gum ball yield. Push the sweet gum picker under trees and around the trunks with ease. Lift out, empty, and replace the basket quickly.
- A warehouse picker from JLG increases efficiency to help your staff reach their order quota for the day. Unlike a bulky order picker forklift, a driveable stock picker can fit down even a narrow aisle at your warehouse to access product inventory in compact spaces.
- Columnist and author Paul Dykewicz meets with stock picker Jim Woods before COVID-19. Chart courtesy of www.stockcharts.com. Certain analysts who follow MercadoLibre view the company as a winner of a shift occurring in Latin America towards increased e-commerce and financial technology adoption. MercadoLibre also operates a growing credit.
What Does an Amazon Picker Do?
While an Amazon picker position can be quite physically demanding, it’s also one of the most important positions in Amazon warehouses.
With responsibilities that include locating the merchandise and tracking the inventory, this position is ideal for those who can thrive in busy work environments.
Amazon Picker Job Duties
As an Amazon picker, your main responsibility will center around gathering products for order fulfillment from your supervisor.
In addition to this core function, you will also be responsible for labeling certain types of merchandise and ensuring that adequate stock levels are being maintained.
The primary responsibilities of Amazon order pickers include:
- Locating merchandise to fulfill picking tickets;
- Labeling specific inventory types;
- Following proper loading and safety procedures at all times;
- Putting deliveries away in the appropriate areas;
- Stacking deliveries into the delivery vehicle as needed.
Amazon Picker Working Hours
An Amazon picker position can be either full-time or part-time. The hours that you’ll have to work each week may vary from as little as 20 hours to as much as 40.
During certain busier work periods, overtime may be required. The most likely time for this to occur is between Thanksgiving and Christmas.
As for the shift types, Amazon pickers work early mornings, afternoons, as well as late evenings. A strong preference is given to employees who maintain full-availability to meet the growing staffing needs of the online retail giant.
Amazon Picker Work Environment
It’s important to note that the work environment of Amazon pickers can be quite demanding. You must be comfortable being on your feet all day long and walking regularly.
You should also be able to lift up to 75 pounds regularly without additional assistance from others.
What’s more, this position requires lots of repetitive movements. You may also be expected to operate certain types of machinery including rollers and pallet jacks as part of your daily tasks. In rare instances, extended shift times may sometimes be necessary to accommodate larger workloads.
Amazon Picker Salary
The average starting pay for Amazon pickup associates is around $15 an hour without bonuses and additional compensation as Amazon.com has recently raised the minimum wage for all its U.S. employees to $15/hour.
Previous experience in a warehouse setting, as well as certifications for certain equipment like forklifts, can increase the starting pay rates as well.
Stock Picker Lift
Besides the base compensation, many Amazon pickers are eligible for a wide range of benefits.
For instance, full-time employees are eligible for things like 401k, health insurance, and paid time off.
There are also additional programs like the Amazon Career Choice program which covers up to $12,000 in tuition, textbooks, and other expenses over 4 years in “high-demand occupations” that may or may not be relevant to the Amazon associate’s current position.
We exclusively fund education only in areas that are in high demand according to sources like the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.” (according to Amazon)
Other Relevant Information
As long as you’re prepared for the physical demands of the job, Amazon picker is a great entry-level position for people who want to get started in a warehouse setting.
With a large range of responsibilities and a fair starting pay, it’s a great option to consider for many Americans.
To learn more about this job and available positions, head over to Amazon’s employment page for more information.
You can also text “Hourly” to 77088 to get alerts on the available hourly order fulfillment roles (text “STOP” if you no longer want to be part of the service.)
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Warehouse Associate Job Description
Order processing is the process or work-flow associated with the picking, packing and delivery of the packed items to a shipping carrier and is a key element of order fulfillment. Order processing operations or facilities are commonly called 'distribution centers' or 'DC's'. There are wide variances in the level of automation associating to the 'pick-pack-and-ship' process, ranging from completely manual and paper-driven to highly automated and completely mechanized; computer systems overseeing this process are generally referred to as Warehouse Management Systems or 'WMS'.
Process[edit]
Order processing is a sequential process involving:[1]
- Picking: consists in taking and collecting articles in a specified quantity before shipment to satisfy customers' orders.
- Sorting: process that separates items according to destination.
- Pre-consolidation or package formation: includes weighting, labeling and packing.
- Consolidation: gathering packages into loading units for transportation, control and bill of lading.
Picking[edit]
The order picking or order preparation operation is one of a logistic warehouse's processes.[2]It consists in taking and collecting articles in a specified quantity before shipment to satisfy customers' orders.It is a basic warehousing process and has an important influence on supply chain's productivity. This makes order picking one of the most controlled logistic processes.
It is one of the warehouse management system functions.
Picking Strategies[edit]
There are several different strategies for order picking, including:
- piece picking or picker to part method: the order picker(s) move(s) to collect the products necessary for one order. This is commonly seen in distribution centres for retail chains whereby a shop will require a great many replenishment goods. A picker may pick all or part of the replenishment for one shop.
- zone picking method: each order picker is assigned to one specific zone and will only realize order picking within this zone. For instance, in an electrical retail environment, both small and large items may be required and a picker on an electric vehicle such as a powered pallet truck (PPT) or an order picker vehicle may pick large and heavy items whereas a foot picker may pick small and light ones from another part of the warehouse. Eventually the two picks are collated.
- batch picking method: order pickers move to collect the products necessary for several separate orders at one time through the most efficient route in the warehouse.
- wave picking method: Wave picking is the combination of zone and batch picking, where batches of orders are passed from picker to picker through separate zones.[citation needed]
- sorting systems method: no movement of the order picker(s), the products are brought to her or him by an automatic system (conveyor system, automatic storage ...).
- pick to box method: same strategy as piece picking above, but when product is picked, it is placed directly into a mailing-ready container, removing the need for any interim repackaging for mailing / transit purposes. This method requires what is sometimes referred to as a 'cartonization' step where the warehouse management system (WMS) figures out before the pick is started how many boxes will be required (and what size) so that the picker goes out in the warehouse with the correct boxes already in hand. [3]
Note that these strategies are not mutually exclusive to each other. For example, wave picking can used to batch picks which are then handled via zone or piece picking. A warehouse may also need to support alternate picking strategies due to physical layout or product distribution; for example, if some products are only sold by pallet and require special lifting equipment, those pallet-orders might be batched or processed differently that the rest of the products which might be piece-picked - alternatively, part of a warehouse might be automated with sorting systems while another part is not.
Piece Picking[edit]
Piece picking, also known as broken case picking or pick/pack operations, describes systems where individual items are picked. Operations using piece picking typically have a large stock keeping unit, or SKU, base in the thousands or tens of thousands of items, small quantities per pick, and short cycle times. Examples of piece pick operations include mail-order catalog companies and repair parts distributors. [4]
Case Picking[edit]
Operations that use case picking tend to have less diversity in product characteristics than operations that use piece picking. There are typically fewer SKUs and higher picks per SKU. [4]
Pallet Picking[edit]
Full-pallet picking, or unit-load picking, uses much simpler systematic methods than piece picking or case picking. However, there are many choices in storage equipment, storage configurations and types of lift trucks. [4]
Sorting[edit]
Sorting machines in distribution
Pick and pack[edit]
Pick and pack is a part of a complete supply chain management process that is commonly used in the retail distribution of goods. It entails processing small to large quantities of product, often truck or train loads and disassembling them, picking the relevant product for each destination and re-packaging with shipping label affixed and invoice included. Usual service includes obtaining a fair rate of shipping from common as well as expediting truck carriers.Pick and Pack services are offered by many businesses that specialize in supply chain management solutions.Case picking is the gathering of full cartons or boxes of product. This is often done on a pallet. In the consumer products industry, case picking large quantities of cartons is often an entry-level employee's task. There is, however, significant skill required to make a good pallet load of product. Key requirements are that cartons not be damaged, they make good use of the available cube (space) and be quick to assemble.
Warehouse management system products create pick paths to minimize the travel distance of an order selector, but often neglect the need to maximize the use of cube, segregate products that should not touch or minimize damage.
Order Picking Technology[edit]
Order picking technology, such as pick-to-light, put-to-light, and pick-to-voice are widely known to improve picking accuracy and efficiency.[5] These technologies can be fully integrated with a warehouse management system (WMS) as well as RF scanners. Larger companies are experimenting with drones, robotics, virtual reality, and augmented reality, but these newer technologies are still too expensive for the average warehouse.[6]
Factors[edit]
The specific 'order fulfillment process' or the operational procedures of distribution centers are determined by many factors. Each distribution center has its own unique requirements or priorities. There is no 'one size fits all' process that universally provides the most efficient operation. Some of the factors that determine the specific process flow of a distribution center are:
- The nature of the shipped product - shipping eggs and shipping shirts can require differing fulfillment processes
- The nature of the orders - the number of differing items and quantities of each item in orders
- The nature of the shipping packaging - cases, totes, envelopes, pallets can create process variations
- Shipping costs - consolidation of orders, shipping pre-sort can change processing operations
- Availability and cost and productivity of workforce - can create trade-off decisions in automation and manual processing operations
- Timeliness of shipment windows - when shipments need to be completed based on carriers can create processing variations
- Availability of capital expenditure dollars - influence on manual versus automated process decisions and longer-term benefits
- Value of product shipped - the ratio of the value of the shipped product and the order fulfillment cost
- Seasonality variations in outbound volume - amount and duration of seasonal peaks and valleys of outbound volume
- Predictability of future volume, product and order profiles
- Predictability of distribution network - whether or not the network itself is going to change
- Presence of small volume distribution
- Minimization of shipping costs
This list is only a small sample of factors that can influence the choice of a distribution center's operational procedures. Because each factor has varying importance in each organization the net effect is that each organization has unique processing requirements.
The effect of Globalization has immense impacts on much of the order fulfillment but its impact is felt mostly in transportation and distribution.
See also[edit]
References[edit]
- ^D.F. Bozutti, M.A. Bueno-Da-Costa, R. Ruggeri, Logística: Visão Global e Picking, EdUFSCar 2010
- ^Piasecki, Dave. 'Order Picking: Methods and Equipment for Piece Pick, Case Pick, and Pallet Pick Operations'. InventoryOps.com. Retrieved 8 December 2012.
- ^'Pick to box procedures'. wms.com.es. Retrieved 2017-08-04.
- ^ abcPiasecki, Dave (2012). 'Order Picking: Methods and Equipment for Piece Pick, Case Pick, and Pallet Pick Operations'. Inventory Ops Consultation. Retrieved 1 May 2015.
- ^https://voodoorobotics.com/pick-to-light-put-to-light/
- ^https://www.forbes.com/sites/andrewarnold/2018/01/29/how-ar-and-vr-are-revolutionizing-the-supply-chain/#2cc3f8dc4cbf
External links[edit]
- Warehouse picking/User Guide by Openbravo
- Order Picking Methods for Efficient Warehouse Setup: Wave Picking - Batch Picking - Zone Picking – Infopluscommerce
Genie Lift